View full sizeEssex County Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (left), with his attorney Donald DiGioia, in September as Coutinho pleaded guilty guilty to theft and falsifying records in Superior Court in Mercer County. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — The unraveling of former state Assemblyman Al Coutinho’s political career reached its end today, when the Democrat from Newark’s Ironbound was sentenced to three years probation for funneling money intended for his family’s charitable foundation into his own pockets.

The 44-year-old Coutinho, once a well-liked and respected member of the Legislature, was also ordered by state Superior Court Judge Gerald Council in Mercer County to perform 50 hours of community service and repay the $32,500 he stole from the Bernardino Coutinho Foundation.

His more than five-year stint serving in the lower house in Trenton skidded to a halt last month. On Sept. 6, he announced he would drop his bid for re-election to “focus on family and personal life” and cited the health challenges he had faced since a heart attack in June.

Five days later, Coutinho resigned his office and acknowledged in an interview with The Star-Ledger that he was under investigation in connection with the foundation, which was created by his father in 1991 and played a leading role in Newark’s annual Portugal Day Festival.

Then, on Sept. 12, he pleaded guilty to theft and falsifying records by failing to report the money he took from the foundation as income on his legislative financial disclosure forms. As part of his plea, Coutinho agreed to never again hold elected office or a public job in the state.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of probation instead of the maximum six and half years the charges carried. Coutinho also waived any rights to a grand jury hearing.

Acting state Attorney General John Hoffman said today New Jerseyans “rightly demand a high standard of integrity” from their elected officials and Coutinho “fell short of that standard.”

“He will pay the just consequences,” Hoffman said.

Coutinho did not return a call for comment. But in his interview with The Star-Ledger last month, he conceded, “this is clearly not the way that I envisioned ending my career.”

He earned $49,000 per year as a lawmaker and was not eligible for a pension.

Democrat Eliana Pintor Marin, a member of the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board, was selected by party insiders to serve out Coutinho’s term and replace him on the Nov. 5 ballot.

From 2008 to 2012, Coutinho served as treasurer for the family’s foundation and cashed checks that were intended for the foundation for his own use. Court records show Coutinho had racked up tens of thousands of dollars in liens and judgments related to unpaid bills.

The Coutinho family foundation, best-known for putting on the Portugal Day Festival — an-all day celebration of ethnic food and costumes — helped put Newark’s Ironbound on the map. At its peak, the event, which began in 1980, drew close to 500,000 people.

But in 2010, a simmering feud with Mayor Cory Booker’s administration broke into public view after the city demanded the foundation share the cost for security and vendors for the festival.

Coutinho’s father said he was unable to collect money from vendors, and that he owed the city $250,000 from past events. Even after Booker waived the fee, the elder Coutinho — owner of a bakery in the Ironbound — called off the event, claiming he had been mistreated by City Hall.

For years, the foundation received enough money from donations and a variety of events to pay its bills, but the money dried up in recent years, according to the organization’s tax returns.